IO Building A New Future For Cancer Treatment

By Suzanne Elvidge, Contributing Writer
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Immuno-oncology (IO) – stimulating the immune system against cancer – could arguably date back to 2600 BC, where infection was used to trigger tumor regression, or to the 1890s, with Coley’s toxins, a mixture of killed bacteria. After over a century of quiet, IO is moving forward rapidly.

The current era of IO began with the 2010 approval of Provenge (sipuleucel-T), a personalized dendritic cell therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, and the 2011 approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy (ipilimumab). “The advent of immuno-oncology has heralded a revolution in cancer therapy,” said Asthika Goonewardene, senior biotech analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.